War of OSes

							Android 4.1 Jelly Bean vs iOS 6 vs Windows Phone 8
In today’s world, one not only buys a phone on the basis of hardware but takes into account
the operating system. As we know technology changes every moment, therefore stepping
out of the current version available of Apple’s, Google’s and Microsoft’s operating systems, I
will be making the comparison of Apple’s iOS6, Google’s Android 4.1 named Jelly Beans and
Microsoft’s Windows Phone 8. Therefore, which one is best among these, here is the
comparison:



Aesthetics
Apple’s iOS is considered to be one of the most user friendly and evolved OS, having said
that barring few minor visual changes it has come to, well let’s just say, standstill visually.[1]
[2]
    I love that in Jelly beans personalization is only restricted to one’s imagination and yeah
his/her wallet with plethora of launchers and weights .[3][4] The new Windows Phone 8 is
more customisable than before, thanks to tiles you can resize into three pre-determined
sizes, depending on how much information you want a tile to convey. [5][6]



Functionality and Performance
We all know the looks though matters but are just skin deep now coming to an important
aspect what all new functions are included and how the device perform in this new iteration
 “Project Butter” describes a new Google initiative to offer Android users a faster, more
responsive OS starting with Jelly Bean by optimizing hardware usage, improving overall
user experience and prolonging battery life .Many new features are included and updated
effectively like Android Beam, Expandable Notifications app, Google wallet, Google Maps
offline support (i.e. in certain countries at first), Google Search now what’s new in that! Well
it takes into account all the data Google has about you to offer tailored, automatic responses
based on Search and triggered by daily activities.[7] Other major updated features include
touch-based and its voice-based typing (dictation) , better faster camera app, additional
voice and video calling features, you get integrated social networks like Facebook, Twitter,
Dropbox, Picasa, its own Google+, and more, redesigned the Google Play store experience.[8]
Apple comes with many great new features and as always enhancing the user end
experience .So what’s is in iOS 6! , Siri is now available in more languages and support
variety of other features, Facebook has been integrated this time twitter was integrated in
iOS5[9], Passbook is a mobile wallet that keeps your debit cards, credit cards, tickets, Shared
Photo Streams app , Apple in this outing has ditched Google map and introduced their own
map app which will have 3D support, noticeable updates can also be found in phone app,
safari, mail and other 200+ changes which although are small but make big difference in
user experience .[1][10]
Microsoft’s windows phone 7 is considered to be a big improvement over its pervious 6.5
and now its turn of windows phone 8. Starting with WP8, the company will support dual-
core and multi-core processors, two extra screen resolutions (1280 x 768 and 1280 x 720)
and micro SD memory expansion which will increase the performance.[11] It includes variety
of new features like Microsoft is creating its own Wallet Hub in WP8, security tool
Enterprise, WP8 will have some cross platform elements from Windows 8 will give boost to
gamming and other apps, Bing maps also available offline ,Facebook and twitter integrated,
NFC support. Microsoft have small but rapidly expanding App store.[12]



Verdict
Considering the Apps, Jelly beans and iOS6 have edge over WP8 as both have more apps.
Apps looks a bit mature in iOS than Android and hence iOS wins in app front. WP8 missed
few tricks that other two OSes have able to pull (like on basic phone app in iOS you can not
only accept or reject call but can send personalize response, do not distribute and can send
reminders).[11]
Success of a OS also depend on how will they update the existing devices. This is a problem
with Android and Microsoft as in Android updates come in slow and painful manner as seen
with ICS and jelly beans will also follow same path, Microsoft’s WP8 is not backward
compatible with existing WP devices whereas in case of apple it is not much of a problem as
update will come to all iPhone after iPhone 3GS, iPod4G, iPad2 and the new iPad
simultaneously.[12]


All in all considering the above factors the winner at this point seems to be (and as many of
you predicted it) iOS6.


References:


[1](“Apple - iOS 6 - iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch get 200+ new features.,”
   URL: http://www.apple.com/ios/whats-new/)
[2](“Apple   iOS     6    review:     Moving      forward             -      GSMArena.com,”
http://www.gsmarena.com/apple_ios_6_review-review-821.php)
[3](“Android - Android 4.1, Jelly Bean,” URL: http://www.android.com/about/jelly-bean/)
[4](“Jelly Bean | Android Community,” URL: http://androidcommunity.com/tag/jelly-bean/)
[5](“Windows    Phone   8    review:  Str8    up    -   GSMArena.com,”                  URL:
http://www.gsmarena.com/windows_phone_8-review-839.php)
[6](“Windows Phone 8 review | Operating systems Reviews | TechRadar,” URL:
http://www.techradar.com/reviews/pc-mac/software/operating-systems/windows-phone-8-
1086692/review)
[7](“Android 4.1: Jelly Bean review | Operating systems Reviews | TechRadar,” URL:
http://www.techradar.com/reviews/pc-mac/software/operating-systems/android-4-1-jelly-
bean-1087230/review)
[8](“Android 4.1 Jelly Bean: When is it coming to my phone? - Pocket-lint,” URL:
http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/46277/jelly-bean-when-update-coming)
[9](“iOS 6 review | Operating systems Reviews | TechRadar,”                       URL:
http://www.techradar.com/reviews/pc-mac/software/operating-systems/ios-6-
1096515/review)
[10](“iOS 6 Review: The Highs, The Lows, And Everything In Between | TechCrunch,” URL:
http://techcrunch.com/2012/09/19/ios-6-review-the-highs-the-lows-and-everything-in-
between/)
[11](“iOS      6    vs     Jelly   Bean      vs     Windows        Phone    8,”   URL:
http://tech2.in.com/features/smartphones/ios-6-vs-jelly-bean-vs-windows-phone-
8/322972)
[12](“Android 4.1 Jelly Bean vs iOS 6 vs Windows Phone 8 - The Ultimate Comparison |
Redmond Pie,” URL: http://www.redmondpie.com/android-4.1-jelly-bean-vs-ios-6-vs-
windows-phone-8-the-ultimate-comparison/)